Disposable rotary brush spacer ring



Jan. 31, 1967 D. RIZZOI 3,300,805

DISPOSABLE ROTARY BRUSH SPACER RING Filed April 19, 1965 hi il s b W :4:INVENTOR AWORNEYS United States Patent 3,300,805 DISPOSABLE ROTARY BRUSHSPACER RING Louis D. Rizzo, Union, NJ. assignor to Danline ManufacturingCompany, Kenilworth, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Apr. 19,1965, Ser. No. 449,130

1 Claim. (Cl. -181) This invention relates to improved spacer ringsadapted to engage and resiliently support the brush elements ofcylindrical or roller brushes, and more particularly to spacer rings orstrips that are disposable.

Many rotary brushes, such as power driven street sweeper brushes use aseries of individual brush sections assembled upon reusable cores orshells which normally and desirably have some means of spacing the brushrings. The use of brush ring spacers minimizes brush stiffness, improvesthe brushing action of the bristles, and increases the life of thebristles. Reusable, molded metal or elastomer, annular, channel spacingmembers have been used in the past; however, in practice it has beenextremely diflicult and time consuming to retrieve these spacers forreuse from the worn-out crimped and knitted wire bristles.

Another approach to brush spacing has been the use or convoluted brushsections without spacers. However, even through convoluted brushsections achieve effective spacing, brush performance is impairedbecause of the skewness or non-radiality imposed on the bristle wires bythe convoluting process. Therefore, from the standpoint of highlyeflective cleaning the more expensive spacer rings are normally used inthe better rotary brushes.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide low-cost,disposable spacer rings in strip form that need not be salvaged andreused.

Another important object of this invention is to provide spacer rings orstrips that are easier to pack and transport.

Still another object of this invention is to provide spacer rings thatcan be extruded in strip form.

Other objects and advantage will be apparent from the discussion,drawings and claims which follow.

I have discovered that by extruding the spacers of this invention in theform of straight flexible channel strips and providing cooperatingengaging and locking means at the corresponding ends of the strips whichallow one to unite the corresponding ends and lock the strips in ringform, effective, economical, disposable spacer rings are produced. Ifone desired to salvage and reuse the spacer rings of this invention theycould; however, since these extruded spacer strips are relativelyinexpensive, it is usually much cheaper to use new ones than to salvagethe used ones.

Preferred forms of the invention will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 show a schematic top view of one embodi ment of the endengaging and locking portion of the spacer ring;

FIGURE 2 shows a schematic bottom view of the same embodiment;

FIGURES 3A to D show various modifications of the engaging and lockingmeans; and

FIGURE 4 shows a cross section of a typical brush cylinder and therelative position of the brush rings and spacer rings.

3,300,805 Patented Jan. 31, 1967 ICC Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2, anoverlapping notched tab portion 5 on one end of spacer strip ring 10fits into and locks in place in the locking slot 6 on the other end ofspacer strip 10. The term overlapping refers to the tab extending beyondthe abutting ends of the raised channel side walls '8. The extension ofthe tab past the channel side Walls 8 is a desirable embodiment butlocking means without this extension may also be used.

The specific shape or type of end engaging and locking means used isoptional and this feature can be varied to suit the specific type ofbrush cylinder or individual taste. A few variations of the end engagingand locking means are illustrated in FIGURES 3A to D, in which the tabs5 are specifically designed to engage and lock into the correspondingslot 6. Many other locking variations are possible.

FIGURE 4 shows a typical brush assembly utilizing the spacer strip rings10 of this invention and the relative position of the brush rings 9 andspacer rings 10. The brush rings 9 are a-but against the resilient Walls8 of spacer rings. These walls give the spacer rings a U-shaped orchannel cross section. The resiliency of walls 8 reduces the stiffnessand increases the brushing efficiency of brush rings 9 and bristles 12.The walls 8 may be modified in any manner desired or a uniformly thickspacer strip can be used. However, the thickness of the end wall of thespacer ring should be thick enough to perform the function of supportingthe brush rings in the manner set forth above.

Various methods and materials may be used to produce the flexible spacerstrips of this invention. For example, the strips may be extruded fromvarious flexible elastomeric or plastic materials such as polyethylene,polypropylene, etc. The formation of the end engaging and locking meansand the cutting of the strips to a prescribed length are mosteconomically done at the same time with a specially designed cutting andshaping die. But the cutting and end notching may be done in separatesteps. It should be understood that many flexible materials and manymodifications in forming the spacer strips, such as molding, may beused.

To form the spacer ring from the flat spacer strip, tab 5 is merelyinserted into slot 6 and twisted to form a positive lock. This assemblyis relatively quick and simple, and requires relatively little labortime.

The low cost, disposable spacer rings of this invention have anotherimportant advantage over prior art spacer rings; they are much easier topack. In practice one merely drops the straight, flat strips into thesame box in which the brush sections are shipped. They do not requirespecial or separate packing, and they allow one to provide a moreefficient and much less bulky package. This ease of packaging is notpossible with spacers already in circular form because they occupy toomuch space. The single package does away with the problem of separatingand misplacing of the space ring package or the brush ring package.

I claim:

A rotary brush spacer strip comprising a flat, flexible, strip ofsubstantially uniform width having (1) a notched tab at one end and aslot shaped to receive and retain said tab at the opposite end whichserve to lock said strip in ring form, and (2) raised side walls whichserve to resiliently support adjacent brush rings.

(References on following page) References Cited by the Examiner UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 023 11 Palmer 29-513 Schlemmer. 5 Comstock.

Rice 2423 Nielsen 15-181 Friedman 308237 X 8/1962 Batcheller 29-S13 X5/1963 Nelson 15181 9/1963 Martin et a1. 24l6 FOREIGN PATENTS 5/1960France.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

P. FELDMAN, Assistant Examiner.

